*
The poem portrays an imperial concubine fallen from favor. Her situation is
thus analogous to that of the “small fan of silk gauze” discarded at summer’s
end.

**
Herdsman…Weaver Maid: Stars positioned south and north of the Milky Way. In
popular legend, they were lovers who meet only once a year on the seventh day
of the seventh month, when magpies build a bridge for them to cross the “River
of Heaven”.